Yaedake cherry blossoms

The Ryukyu cherry called kanhizakura opens in late January here, and Yaedake ranks among the first places in Japan to see blossom each year. About 7,000 trees line the 4 km road from the mid-slope to the summit. The Motobu Yaedake Sakura Matsuri gathers at Yaedake Sakura no Mori Park, where entry and the 500 parking spaces are free and the town crowns its Miss Sakura.

For a rider this is the climb on the Motobu Peninsula, a steady road under pink trees from Inoha toward the second-highest summit on Okinawa Island after Yonaha-dake. The top belongs to the Yaedake Communications Station, which the US Army began using in 1950 and the US Air Force took over in 1977, with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force sharing it since 1993. Go up early on a weekday in bloom season, before the festival car parks fill.

The mountain has a harder history as well. In April 1945 the Japanese Udo Force held positions around Yaedake against the US 6th Marine Division, and the summit fell on 16 April in the only sustained battle between the two sides in northern Okinawa. Kishimoto Shokudo's Yaedake branch sits on the lower slope for a bowl of soba once you are back down.